It was nicer than the china he and his wife had gotten for their wedding, and it had historical significance.

"This has the family heritage, so we wanted to make sure it gets used," he said.

There was, however, the seemingly simple matter of getting the china to his home in Elk Grove Village.

"We had traveled there by train. The train (company) said we could take it back, but they wouldn't insure it," Reddinger said. "We figured that, being what it was, we needed some sort of insurance in case something happened."

So Reddinger took the china to a nearby shipping store, the Los Lunas Mail Center.

The man at the store looked at the china and declared it fit to send.

Reddinger paid the store $129.67, to have the dishes packed in five boxes and sent it to Elk Grove Village via UPS on June 21.

When the boxes arrived, Reddinger saw one had been crushed.

"As we started unpacking the other boxes we found damaged pieces," he said.

Reddinger said he called the shipping store in New Mexico and asked how to file a claim. Each of the boxes came with basic $100 damage coverage, and the damaged pieces totaled $444.

"During the conversation they listed reason after reason why they were not responsible and how they could not help us with this problem," Reddinger said. "We asked my mother to go into the store and talk to them in person, figuring that maybe this would get better results. At the end of that meeting they were so upset about her being there, they threatened to call the police and have her arrested."

So Reddinger tried a different approach. He called UPS, which instructed him to call the shipper back, because the shipper had to initiate the claim with UPS.

"We told them of our previous experience with the shipper and asked if there was any other alternative," Reddinger said. "They said no, the claim had to go through the shipping agent."

So he tried. On several occasions he was told the person he needed to speak to was out, so he left messages. No one called back, he said.

Having no luck with the shipper, Reddinger called UPS again. A representative suggested he find a phone number for the shipping store's parent company, Postal Annex.

A representative for Postal Annex tried to intervene on Reddinger's behalf, but the owner of the Los Lunas Mail Center refused to file a claim with UPS, Reddinger said.

In the months that followed, Reddinger called UPS and Postal Annex repeatedly, but neither could resolve the problem, he said.

Then in January a representative from Postal Annex called and said the owner of Los Lunas Mail Center had agreed to pay Reddinger $400 in two $200 installments. Reddinger was elated. Although it was less than the $444 in damage, at least he would recover most of the money he was owed.

But when Reddinger called the store last week to remind the owner to send the money, he got an answering machine.

"I called my mother and asked her to go by the store location to see if they were still open," he said. "She called back and told me that they posted a note on the door stating the store was closed until further notice."

Reddinger said he quickly realized the promised $400 would never arrive. So he emailed What's Your Problem?

He said his receipt has a clause that says he agrees to the terms and conditions of the store and the carrier.

"I find it odd that I am bound by these terms and conditions but the store, the parent company (and) UPS … all seem to be able to ignore them when convenient," Reddinger said.